The 35th Drogheda Chess Congress was held recently over the June Bank Holiday Weekend (30th May - 1st June) in St Mary's Parish Primary School. The event was the brainchild of the late Andrew Thomson, who took the Congress with him from Wexford when he relocated to Drogheda in 1988. Over the years, the format has evolved into the event we have today: a 6 round, 90+30, ICU & FIDE rated Swiss.
The Congress is split into four sections and are named for past members of the Drogheda Chess Club who made substantial contributions to the club's life. These are the Murray Challengers - named in honour of Jimmy Murray , the Fox Major - named in honour of Donnie Fox, the O'Boyle Championship - named in honour of Enda O'Boyle and the Thomson Masters - named in honour of the Congress founder himself.
In total, there were 116 entrants this year, slightly down from last year but probably a reflection of an increasingly busy calender. There was still, however, representation from a range of federations apart from Ireland including England, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The Masters section was exactly the same as last year with 22 players and 5 former winners: FM Oleg Artemenko from Uzbekistan (2024), CM Jacob Flynn (2023), FM Colm Daly (9 times winner!), IM Tarun Kanyamarala (2019, 2024) and WGM Trisha Kanyamarala (2019). The average rating has continued to increase to over 2100.
This year saw renewed and generous sponsorship across all sections. Drogheda Credit Union continued their sponsorship of the Thomson Masters and Murray Challengers. Fox Jewellers Drogheda and Volkswagen Louth (formally Western Motors) renewed their sponsorship of the Fox Majors and the O'Boyle Championship, respectively. All three have now sponsored the Congress for three years in a row.
Live Boards
This years Congress saw the number of DGT e-boards in use increase to 33 with 6 in the Murray Challengers, 8 in the Fox Major, 8 in the O'Boyle Championship and all of the Thomson Masters. These broadcasts are available as an official broadcast on lichess.org and can be viewed via the Congress Live Board page.
The broadcast attracted good viewership. The first round alone attracted over 2500 unique viewers across all sections according to the statistics which certainly justify their use.
Some games of particular note in the Masters:
Ivanov vs Kanyamarala 0-1 (Round 1): Queen Sacrifice! Round 1 had many upsets in the Masters (the stronger player only won in 4 of the 10 pairings), at one point we thought this could be another. Tarun gives up his queen for material advantage but has little time to navigate the resulting complex position. An impressive display of how to protect and co-ordinate ones king and pieces against a queen.
Daly vs Melaugh 1-0 (Round 4): King Walk - Move 47 and both sides have been shuffling pieces for a while. It looks like a draw is imminent. That is until white tries a provocative idea...
Kanyamarala vs Ozarpaci 1-0 (Round 1): Morphy-esque - Echoes of the Opera Game in this one. Guess white's next move..
Photography
We'd like to thank Boyne Valley Photographic Club and Photographer Frank Condra who did a fantastic job capturing this year's Congress. We present a small sample below.
The full set of photos can be viewed on the Drogheda Chess Club Facebook Page and Instagram.
Murray Challengers
Fox Major
O'Boyle Championship
Thomson Masters
Prize Winners
In each section, there were prizes awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place overall, with prizemoney shared equally between those on equal points, regardless of tie-breaks - the prizemoney from the place below being amalgamated. In addition, a Wooden Chess Trophy was awarded for 1st place on tiebreak in each section.
A Grading Prize was awarded to one player with the best score, within each of the rating bands indicated on the Starting Rank Player List, who did not win another prize. Grading prizes were not shared but decided on tie-break.
In addition, there is a Best Woman prize in each section for a female player who did not win another prize. If a player qualifies for both a Grading Prize and Best Woman, then the Grading Prize will take precedent. The winners are as follows:
Thomson Masters
1st (€500): IM Tarun Kanyamarala (Dublin) (pictured with Club President Donal O'Boyle) and CM Jacob Flynn (Malahide) - 5/6 - €400 each.
2nd (€300): Amalgamated with 1st place.
3rd (€170): FM Oleg Artemenko - 4½/6.
Grading Prize (€75): (ICU Rating < 2000) Padraig Hughes (Curragh) - 4/6.
Best Woman (€75): WGM Trisha Kanyamarala (Dublin) - 2½/6.
O'Boyle Championship
1st (€400): (Joint 1st) Jacob Nelson (DCU), George White (Knights Of Éanna) (both pictured with Club President Donal O'Boyle, Enda O'Boyle's son) and Illia Smoliarenko - 4½/6 - €267 each.
2nd (€250): Amalgamated with 1st place.
3rd (€150): Amalgamated with 1st place.
Grading Prize (€75): (ICU Rating < 1850) Beril Bayrak (MTU Cork Chess Society) - 3½/6.
Grading Prize (€75): (ICU Rating < 1850) Shane Corry (Naomh Barrog) - 3½/6.
Best Woman (€75): Nicole White (Knights Of Éanna) - 3½/6.
O'Boyle Championship Standings
Fox Major
1st (€300): Aken Pinitha Palihawadana (Raharney) (pictured with Club President Donal O'Boyle) - 5½/6.
2nd (€170): Alex O'Rourke (Cork Chess Club) - 5/6.
3rd (€100): Eoin Dunne - 4½/6.
Grading Prize (€75): (ICU Rating < 1700) Peter J. Lynch (Knights Of Éanna) - 4/6.
Grading Prize (€75): (ICU Rating < 1600) Yuvan Pradeep Kumar (Drogheda) - 3½/6.
Best Woman (€75): Agnieszka Pozniak - 3½/6.
Murray Challengers
1st (€200): Sam Keogh (pictured with Club President Donal O'Boyle) - 5½/6.
2nd (€150): (Joint 2nd) Michael Afanasiev Elioutin, Ilankathir Vanjinathan and Max Tuite (Balbriggan) - 5/6 - €75 each.
3rd (€70): Amalgamated with 2nd place.
Grading Prize (€60): (ICU Rating < 1400) Dean Patrick Sherry (Drogheda) - 3½/6.
Grading Prize (€60): (ICU Rating < 1285) Rayyan Alam (Galway) - 3/6.
Grading Prize (€60): (ICU Rating Unrated) Jay Murphy - 4/6.
Best Woman (€60): Xinmin Chen (Knights Of Éanna) - 4/6.
Acknowledgements
The Drogheda Chess Club would like to thank all those who helped organise and run the event, in particular Chief Organiser Frank Pentony and Chief Arbiter Krzysztof Nowak. We’d like to thank John Loughran for his name cards and e-board pieces as well as Frank Condra for his photography of the event. We'd like to thank the ICU for the equipment. We'd like to thank all our sponsors as well as the local restaurants and businesses in the area that provided discounts to players during the event in particular the Black Bull Inn. We'd like to thank everyone else outstanding who made this possible. The list is a long one, but you know who you are, we couldn't have done it without you. Finally, we'd like to thank the players, without whom there wouldn't be a Drogheda Chess Congress!
We hope to see you all again next year, on June 5th, 2027, for the 36th Drogheda Chess Congress.
See you there...